Sunday Gardening

Sunday was slightly overcast and cool and humid and very comfortable. Me and Ben and Maggie circled down along the river path, where the sound of the water adds to our morning wandering. I like to hear the water rolling down over the sandstone in the river bed. The peace is broken by a Kingfisher chattering at us as he leave his perch above the river and follows the corridor between the trees downstream. I see kingfishers all winter, even in winter. I also see mallards and gadwalls and green-Winged Teal through the cold months, lolling about in the water, sticking their heads under to harvest some aquatic plants off the bottom. The mallards and teals are most attractive late in the day, when the afternoon sun illuminates the greens and blues of their head and wing feathers into a sharp irridescence.

After my walk I went home and worked in the garden some more. I am moving soil to elevate my beds before I plant. I prefer to garden on mounds of loam - with tall flowers on the high part in the middle, and vegetables down the side, lined by dwarf marigolds at the edge. Marigolds are one of those companion plants that tend to keep insects out of the garden.

I don't overexert myself though, it being Sunday and all. After every couple of wheelbarrow loads over to the garden I go over and sit under the trees and pet the dogs, and relax in the haven of my green grass and trees. Each day brings a little more shade to the yard, as the buds are bursting open to ash and oak and apple flower and leaf.

I like working the soil an awful lot - breaking the clods with my fingers, then smoothing it out where I am planting the seeds. I progressed enough to get the south part of the garden ready for planting. This is my new addition this year, next to the lilacs and peach tree. I planted sunflowers and fouroclock and tall nicotina, which is my favorite summer flower. It grows up to 18 inches, and blooms in trumpet-shaped flowers in hues of white, pink, red, and lavender. Nicotina is pollinated by night-flying moths, and release a heavenly fragrance that covers the entire yard from midsummer on.

On Sunday afteroon I went to a special Contra dance, with an out of town band that was supposed to be real good. (Airdance). They were fine musicians, and played some very nice waltzes at the end of the first contra set, and again at the end of the dance. I got caught up in the beautiful fiddle tune during one of the waltzes, and the grace of my partner, and as her spin ended just as the last notes of the violin faded, it felt it would be awful natural to kiss her. That is how the romance of dance and music and the touch of your partner can affect you. It is like medicine for a wounded heart, and you become healed without even realizing it.

I have found the peace of living one's own life, gravitating to things that you know will make you happy. For me it is walking on a trail with my dogs through the river woods, working the soil and sitting in my yard, holding the hands of a sweet lady and waltzing in harmony with her to the hauntingly beautiful notes of an old violin.